


A Royal Game

by partyaminal



Category: Chaotic (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Hide and Seek, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-16 01:06:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18510796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/partyaminal/pseuds/partyaminal
Summary: One night, during a banquet inside the Royal Palace, Iflar spots a lone Chaotic Player wondering the Oasis's empty city streets looking for a Cyclance their friend hid for them. Either out of bordom or intruige, the Crown Prince challanges the Player to a game of hide and seek with the reward being both a scan of the Cyclance and Iflar.However, there's a catch, it's not the human hunting for Iflar, it's Iflar hunting for the human.





	A Royal Game

Iflar sat on the window still and listened to the sound of the cool wind of the desert. He listened to it as it slithered through the empty streets of the Oasis under the moon lit sky. The Crown Prince exhaled when the sounds of the party just two floors below him grew louder. He knew what was going on down there, he knew that his family were begin to argue over something, whether it be over small petty things, about Chaotic players wondering the streets, that Iflar would not be able to live up to his father's legacy or the Royal Families legacy for that matter, or just about anything in-between.

Iflar inwardly sighed. His family squabbles, whether big or small, they never failed to annoy him with how much narcissism they spew. But thankfully, either by the Cothica or just plane luck, not all of them were like that.

Chaoitc players, or humans as he understands, never cease to confuse and intrigue him. Questions float around in his mind about the place of origin of these creatures, why do they come to perim?, why are they so intrigued with the tribes and creatures of Perim?, and what is a Chaotic?

Unlike the tribes of Perim who constantly fight for the same goals and motives: Survival, Resources, and to find the Cothica. Iflar found it odd that humans don't share those same goals. In fact, Iflar wondered if humans actually have goals or motives, but if they do, then what are they? The Crown Prince rubbed his chin as if to ponder further on the question. He thought of how some of these humans have, somehow, manage to befriend and gotten along with some creatures from the Overworld to the Mipedian desert and the Underworld, even the Danians of all things.

He also wondered about those things, those "scanners" as they call them. He remembered watching one human point one at VInta, and then pressed a button somewhere on the front side of the devise, then, a bright blue hue that escaped from it and almost completely cover the Mipedian and began making odd noises that too escaped from the small hand held devise. The Crown Prince thought something bad was going to happen to the stalker, but nothing happened. No energy draining, no disappearing, nothing. The human thanked Vinta before pressing another button and disappearing.

Apparently, creatures aren't the only things that can be "scanned". Battlegear, locations, and even mugic are susceptible to be "scanned". Whatever the humans do with those scans after acquiring them or why some of them were desperate or foolish enough to trespass or break into places for them, Iflar did not want to know. Maybe it was for the best.

The Crown Prince then began to think of his father.

 **The way Iflar remembered his father** , he had expectations, they were slightly higher than Iflar's but were still fairly easy to achieve. He was tough during negotiations yet fair if one could meet him halfway. He was patient but like everyone, he had his limits.  
Iflar looked up at the full moon climbing up into the night sky in the distance. The thought of his father made his both happy and sad at the same time. He remembered that his father had his good sides and his bad sides.  
**In his mind** , **he sees**  his father as neutral, just, the kind of king that many so called rulers should strive for. Though, the Crown Prince does wonder just what would be his father's reaction once he discovers these humans running around.

The sound of the door his bedroom door opening caught his attention and snapped him off his train of thought. He stood up and turn to see who was entering his chambers and immediately recognized the female Mipedian standing in the door way. "Oh! Ylinne, please come in" the Crown Prince said in a calm voice.

The purple Mipedian guard entered the room and saluted the Crown Prince before speaking "your highness, would you like for me to escort you down to the dinning room?"

Iflar was about to answer when the sound of a plates crashing interrupted him and causing both Mipedians to flinch. The voices from below them grew louder and caused the Crown Prince to pinch the bridge of his nose before answering in an annoyed tone of voice "can you please bring me some food from down stairs instead?"

Ylinne responded "yes your highness" as Iflar slowly turned back around to face the window.

The sound of the Crown Prince sighing caused the Mipedian guard to question "is everything alright your highness?"

Iflar began to respond "to be honest Ylinne, I honestly don't know. Sometimes, I just wonder how it was tha...."

The Crown Prince stopped and just stared out the window, transfixed onto something that caught his attention. The Mipedian guard walked up next to Iflar to see what had caught the Prince's attention.  
A Chaotic player, wondering around the now closed open air market looking for something.

Ylinne sighed in annoyance before asking "should I go round up a few guards and apprehend them, you highness?" Iflar held a straight face and started tapping the side of his mouth with his index finger as if to single that he was thinking.

The Crown Prince soon answered with a smile "no, I'll handle this one personally".

The Mipedian guard was about to speak against the Crown Prince's idea but was cut off when he spoke "their harmless Ylinne. The worse they can do to me would either be to scan me or disappear. They don't even look like they know how to use a single piece of battlegear, let alone pick one up".

The Mipedian guard replied "looks can be deceiving, you know that first hand Crown Prince Iflar" with a hint of concern in her voice.

Iflar, still holding his smile, retorted while he walked out of his room and into the hallway "in that case, it would be an interesting battle".

Ylinne let out a defeated sigh as she watched the Crown Prince exit his chambers. She never doubted his fighting abilities, but she still didn't like the idea of the Crown Prince going toe-to-toe against an unknown opponent, even if said unknown opponent is from a tribe that's just as unknown with devices that have yet to be fully understood, no matter how weak they may look. In the end, Ylinne decided to tail the young prince.

Meanwhile outside.

The Chaotic Player lifted the silky blue fabric that decorated the table under the tent. the Player looked under the table before letting out a sigh of annoyance and letting go of the fabric.

"Siado said he hid the Cyclance under a tent with a blue canopy. Guess I should've asked "which tent?"" the Player mumbled under their breath. The Player moved on to the next tent with a blue canopy and repeated the process a few more times.

The Chaotic Player knew that a player walking around the Oasis during the day time would surly catch a few stares but wouldn't cause much of a negative reaction. They also knew that a Chaotic player wondering around the market area during the day time would cause the Mipedians who spotted them to keep a close eye on them, but again, not much of a negative reaction. But a Chaotic player wondering around the market area and looking through the tents in the hopes of finding a Cyclance that was basically stolen from the Royal Palace just to get a scan of it in the dead of night? That can be used as one of many examples of "high risk, low reward".

The Chaotic player wondered if there were any guards wondering around the area since they couldn't see any when they were sneaking around. They quickly realize the idiocy in their curiousness. "Of course I couldn't see them, their Mipedians! They can turn invisible at will!" they thought.

The Player decided to get check out the next row of tents. As they cut through the space that separated two tents, they felt the prescience of someone watching them. They quickly turned around but found no one standing behind them. They took a few steps backwards before fully turning around and accidentally bumping into something or someone.

The Player rubbed their nose before looking forward to see what they bumped into. They saw a pair of skinny legs clothed in some sort of blue fabric, they looked up and saw an exposed white, muscular abdomen. They looked up some more and saw some blue armor covering the individual's chest, and upon looking up even further, they figured out who they bumped into.

Iflar, still holding his smile from earlier, looked down at the Chaotic Player. He bent down and held out the Cyclance the Player was looking for and asked "was this what you were looking for?" 

The Player stared blankly at the battlegear for a second before looking back up at the Mipedian, the last creature they expected to see outside of...well, just about anywhere. The Crown Prince explained "I found it poking out from under the tent just behind me, and it just so happened that I spotted you lurking around the market looking for something".

Iflar examined the battlegear and commented "funny, this Isn't some ordinary Cyclance that you can find just about anywhere, in fact, if I had to guess, this would be Mudeenu's Cyclance".

The Chaotic Player tried to speak "Mu-Mudeenu's? But-but-but...". Iflar waited for the Player to finish their sentence as he still held his smile. The Player finished "how?"

Iflar straighten himself as he tossed the Cyclance around in his hands. "It's obvious that you didn't take my cousin's Cyclance, for he keeps this specific piece of battlegear close to him. No, you would need help acquiring this piece of battlegear from someone who works inside my home. Especially someone who's close or knows my cousin and all his secret stashes well".

The Player tried to stay calm as the Crown Prince stopped tossing the battlegear around and began to examine it again. Iflar then asked "you do know that whoever stole this from my cousin didn't just commit an act of thievery, but also an act of treason?, Right?"

The Player felt the fear in back of their mind creeping forward as they tried to answer "uh, n-no. I just-just wanted a-a-a scan. N-not steal it".

The Crown Prince rested the Cyclance across his shoulders and responded "It wouldn't have matter if you were going to steal it or scan it because whoever stole this battlegear from both the palace and my cousin would be charged with treason for handing over important equipment to someone from another tribe once they are apprehended".

The Player retorted "But I'm not a part of any tribe!"

The Crown Prince lifted his index finger up and responded "ah!, but you are. You see, Chaotic players or humans aren't native to Perim. It doesn't help that we know so little about your kind, nor does it help that your kind seem to have a fascination of traveling back and forth between our home and yours with your strange technology to "scan" us, our locations, our stuff. No, you see, your kind has demonstrated independence, it shows us that your kind has some form of function to either work for or against each other. Your kind obviously have technological know how, as seen with your scanners. And lets not forget to mention that your kind also seems to have some kind of hierarchy with these "CodeMasters" being at the top, it tells us that your kind have some form of government. So yes, your kind are a tribe which we refer to as "OtherWorld" and you all are "OtherWorlders""

The Player held a look of confusion, but somehow understood where the creature was coming from. They decided to bring the conversation back to the earlier topic by asking "but what if the creature that took the battlegear doesn't get caught? What then?"

Iflar answered "You do know how obsessed Mudeenu is with finding the Cothica? Well, with that in mind, do you really think he would not turn the Oasis upside down in order to find whoever it was that stole his Cyclance? My cousin may get distracted from time to time, but he has a long memory and can hold grudges for a long time".  
Iflar paused to rest the Cyclance against one of the tents before continuing "it is also worth noting that when you humans started coming here in alarming numbers, the severity of treason has increase over the past few solons. What was, originally, a creature getting arrested for treason typically spent a third to half of their lives in prison. Now, the punishment for treason has gone up to either a whole life in prison or even banishment. Would you really want to put your friend, the one who stole my cousin's battlegear at risk all because you wanted a scan?"

The Player shook their head "no".

The Mipedian nodded and spoke "good. I hope you learned that your actions have consequences that can either directly or indirectly affect those around you".

The Chaotic Player answered "yes sir" before pulling out their scanner, ready to port home.

However, the Crown Prince halted them from pressing the button their scanner by say "before you go, I would like to ask you something".

The Player paused and looked back up at the creature.

Iflar continued "now, I'm a fair creature, and I'll overlook this little incident between you, your friend, and this Cyclance, IF you will be willing to challenge me".

The Player's expression morphed into a mix of both confusion and horror. They thought "did Iflar, the Crown Prince of the Mipedian Oasis, want to challenge me to a duel?!?"  
The Player quickly responded "challenge? like what? a duel? there's no way I'm going to stand a chance against you!"

The Crown Prince chuckled and shook his head before replying "No, no!, not a duel, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be able to win even with this Cyclance. I was thinking of something more along the lines of a game instead".

The Chaotic Player's held their confused expression while they waited for the Crown Prince to explain.

Iflar spoke "it's a very simple game you see, many children play it all the time, most of them go find places to hide while one covers their eyes and wait before going on to find them. Surly you heard of this game?"

The Player answered "uh, yeah, hide and seek". They were a little confused on why a creature in high power would want to play a childish game with them.

Iflar commented "so you do know the game, great!" he pointed towards the Player's scanner and continued "but you can't use that I'm afraid". The Mipedian opened up his hand and calmly said "Don't worry, I'll give it back to you once the game is over".

They looked down at their scanner and then back at the Mipedian, reluctantly, they agreed to hand over their scanner to Iflar, who then pocketed it.

The Crown Prince spoke "I'll make you an offer, if you win, not only will I let you scan the Cyclance, but I'll also let scan me as well".

The Player gave a small smile, but asked "but if I lose?"

Iflar's only answered the Player's question with a single word "don't". The Player's smile went away after hearing that word.

The Mipedian closed his eyes. The Player, now even more confused asked "uh, what are you doing?"

The white Mipedian opened his right eye and answered "my apologies, I forgot to mention; I'm not the one doing the hiding, you are".

The Chaotic Player's eyes shot wide open. The Crown Prince closed his right eye and said "Don't waste your time OtherWorlder"

The Player broke into a run away from the Crown Prince, running through the tents in a zig-zag manner. They ran out of the market area and shot down the empty moon lit street, only to pause and take shelter behind a building a few hundred yards away from where the Crown Prince was standing.

They began to mumbled in-between small pants for air "why the hell did I agree to this!? I'm playing hide and seek with a Mipedian, a Royal one at that!, one that is rumored to be one of the fastest in the Oasis and knows this entire town like the back of his hand, made worst by the fact that I gave him my scanner. Jesus Christ, just what was I thinking".

The all too familiar voice of Iflar broke the Player of their train of thought "OtherWordler, you do know that when you hide, your suppose to remain quite? right?"

The Chaotic Player crouched and peaked around the corner of the building and spotted the Crown Prince walking towards their general direction, turning his head to look both directions. "How the hell" they thought "there's no way he counted to ten and caught up that fast!"  
The Player quickly placed their back against the back of the building. They looked down the alleyway to their right and quietly took a deep breath, they peaked around the corner of the building one more time, but saw that the Crown Prince wasn't there.  
The Player got nervous as they quietly exhaled "did-did he turned invisible?" they thought as they backed up behind the building again.

Their body stiffened as they felt the presence of someone or something behind them. They slowly turned around and found the Crown Prince crouching right behind them with one arm hanging loosely to the side while the other arm had it's elbow resting against his leg and hand balled up under his chin. "Would you like to try again?" Iflar asked.

The Player jumped out of the alleyway behind the building and took off down the empty street. They looked behind them and saw Iflar, now standing in the middle of the street, still holding his calm smile. This made the Player run faster for some reason.

After running pass the market area, and cutting around some buildings, the Player stopped to catch their breath behind another building, this time further away from the market area.

They sat down and rested their back against the building. "Just what am I doing? I could've ended the game right then and there!" they thought.

They remained seated against the building until they felt like they could run again. They decided to look around the corner of the building, what they saw made their eyes shoot wide open again.  
They saw two snow white feet. They slowly looked up and saw Iflar lazily leaning against the corner of the building looking down at the player.

The Crown Prince, in a calm and casual tone of voice said "boo".

The Player jumped up to their feet and bolted down the alleyway. They took a hard right turn around another building and ran through, what they guess, was the residential district.

The residential district, one of the bigger districts within the Oasis. Mud brick houses cobbled together to create an interconnecting series of alleyways, decorated with clothing hanging on lines extending from one house to another and canopies hanging over some of the doorways. There are also some plants hanging near the doorways that can provide some decent cover and there are some tables laying sideways against a couple of nearby walls that could also provide some cover as well. Not to mention that while they were running, they remember seeing some crates scattered around, they can use those to reach the roofs of the buildings to get an elevated advantage over Iflar. 

The Chaotic Player stopped running and quickly spotted some crates laying around. They then turned around to make sure the Crown Prince was not behind them before running over to the crates. They moved the crate over to the lowest point of a house before going back for two more crates, stopping to make sure Iflar didn't appear anywhere too closely. They placed one crate in front of the other and began to push them both towards the first crate.

After placing the second crate in front of the first crate, then came the challenge of having to lift the third crate. It had to way, what? thirty, maybe fourty pounds?, that was roughly a third of the Player's weight!  
The Player squatted down and placed both their hands under the crate, they knew that this was a dumb move, but at this point, they were willing to do it just to get some space between them and the Mipedian hunting for them. They took a breath before lifting the crate, the Player struggled to hold it up, they gasped before quickly placing the third crate on top of the second crate.

The Player leaned forward against the crate and started panting for air for a few minutes. They then sluggishly pulled themselves on top of the first crate only to stopped and lean forward against the third crate. They had a feeling that wasting their energy to lift the crate was going to come back and bite them later, but nether the less, they pulled themselves on top of the third crate before climbing on top of the house's roof.

They tried to remain quite as they took a few steps forward, not wanting to wake the residents of whoever lived inside the house. They sat down and tried to catch their breath. They were scared but they couldn't explain it, they've been chased and shot at multiple times while creeping around Mount. Pillar. They broke into Ulmar's lab and Bodal's workshop to scan battlegear multiple times, hell, they even got shot at and chased by both Kinnianne and Mudeenu after accidentally sneezing few seconds after getting two lucky scans of both of them. But this?, this was somehow scarier than all those combined, it was confusing to the Player. Instead of being angry or violent, Iflar was calm and casual. He didn't even have any battlegear equipped, or at least they hoped he didn't, they weren't sure if he had any mugic hidden in his back pockets. It would probably explain how the Mipedian was able to catch up with him as fast as he did. Maybe it was just the fact that they didn't have their scanner on them or maybe it was Mipedian's smile.

They rested for a few minutes until the sound of footsteps heading towards their direction caught their attention. They quickly stood up and inched their way towards the edge of the roof where they looked around, hoping that the moon's light will show them. Unfortunately, they couldn't find anyone.

Feeling unnerved, they quickly made their way towards the other side of the roof and with the help of the moon light, saw another roof roughly seven feet away from them. Deciding that they did not wish to see Iflar again, they took a leap of faith and jumped towards the other roof.  
They then began to break into a run, not caring if they wake up the residents. They jumped to and fro a few more buildings before coming to a complete stop to catch their breath again.

They looked over the edge of a two story building and spotted the Crown Prince, sticking out like a sore thumb, standing right under him tapping the side of his mouth. The Mipedian looked behind him before continuing to walk down the street.

The Chaotic Player shifted their focus from the Crown Prince to the building across from him. the building was about twelve feet away from him with a two story drop separating the the two buildings. In the alleyway below, there were some plants laying around and a few canopies above some of the doors. The Player thought to themselves "if I can make it to the that building, I''ll be able to hang out up there until the game ends, whenever it ends". They looked back down at the alleyway and continued "but if I fail...it's going to suck".

The Player backed up to the opposite side of the building before breaking into a run. Once they reached the edge of the building, they jumped with all their might.

They smiled as they soared across the street below them, and believed that they were going to make it to the opposite building. That is, until gravity came into play, then the smile they had on their face slowly turned into a fearful frown.

Instead of clearing the jump and landing on top of the roof on the other building, they hit the building's front wall making a loud smacking sound as it happened. The Player's body reeled back from the impact as they fell. Luckily, they landed on top of a canopy and bounced once before landing on to the hard ground head first, making a loud thud like sound as they did.

Iflar turned around when he heard the sound of something falling to the ground behind him. He spotted the Chaotic Player laying on the ground moaning in pain and with a mixed expression of both confusion, surprise, and concern, he walked over to the downed player.  
The Crown Prince crouched next to the Player and and asked "are you ok?!", he then waved his hand a few times in their line of sight. He then snapped his fingers a few times, trying to catch the Players attention, but only managed to get a moan in pain as a response.

The white Mipedian sensed another Mipedian standing next to him using their invisibility. The invisible Mipedian revealed themselves to be Ylinne who was holding the Cyclance Iflar rested against the tent earlier, she spoke "not going to lie your majesty, that was a pretty interesting and unusual torture method".

The Crown Prince looked up at his royal guard and asked "it was?"

The sound of the Player letting out a moan in pain as they tried to sit up caught both Iflar's and Ylinne's attention. The purple Mipedina grabbed her sword's grip and was about to unsheathed it until the Crown Prince turn to face her with a raised opened hand, singling for her to stop. Ylinne held an annoyed look but ultimately sheathed her sword as Iflar turned to look at the Player now sitting up with one hand placed over the back of their head.

"I think I want to quite now" they said as they rubbed the back of their head. They continued "as much fun as I think your having, I just don't have it in me to continue the game anymore".

Iflar commented "smart move" before handing over the Player's scanner.  
The Chaotic Player slowly took the scanner and decided to call it a night by pressing a button on the small object and porting back home.

Ylinne spoke "your highness, if I might ask, but do you think that's going to stop him from coming back here?" as Iflar stood up.

The Crown Prince answered "probably not, I got a feeling he'll be coming back some time in the near future. But hopefully next time he learns to be mindful of his actions". There was a pause as Iflar turned around to face his royal guard, he then spoke with a sly smile "so Ylinne", catching her attention before continuing "hows that dinner coming along?"

The purple Mipedian held a confused look before switching over to a smirk and responding "on the way, your highness". She then walked back to the palace as Iflar stayed behind, he looked up at the moon and thought to himself "human's, sometimes, you manage to impress me and confuse me all at the same time".


End file.
